He was just approaching a turbid stream, whose icy waters, reaching almost to his neck, he would have had to wade but for this Providential assistance.
Travellers in the wilderness seldom trot their horses.

On such a journey, an animal who naturally walks fast is of much more value than one which has attained high speed upon the race-course.

Thus pleasantly mounted, David and his kind protector rode along together until they came within about fifteen miles of John Crockett's tavern, where their roads diverged.

Here David dismounted, and bidding adieu to his benefactor, almost ran the remaining distance, reaching home that evening.
"The name of this kind gentleman," he writes, "I have forgotten; for it deserves a high place in my little book.

A remembrance of his kindness to a little straggling boy has, however, a resting-place in my heart, and there it will remain as long as I live." It was the spring of the year when David reached his father's cabin.